The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Sundown Joe’ and World War III

Posted on | August 3, 2024 | Comments Off on ‘Sundown Joe’ and World War III

Everybody got a laugh Friday when, after an airport photo-op with hostages recently returned from Russia, Joe Biden wandered away and climbed the steps of the empty plane. Media “fact-checkers” instantly went into spin mode, claiming that what we saw with our own two eyes — an old man exhibiting dementia symptoms — didn’t really happen.

The problem with the media’s political make-believe games is that the president’s duties as Commander-in-Chief cannot be wished away, at a time when events in the Middle East are at a perilous turn:

The U.S. military is repositioning assets and moving additional forces into the Middle East and Europe to defend against a potential attack on Israel by Iran, U.S. officials said.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin ordered the deployment of additional Navy destroyers and cruisers, both with offensive and defensive ballistic missile capabilities, as the Pentagon also takes steps to beef up land-based missile defense, Sabrina Singh, a Pentagon spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday evening. An additional squadron of fighter jets also will be deployed to the Middle East to reinforce defensive air support, she said.
The statement did not identify which vessels and units will be involved, but says they will be added to the “broad range of capabilities the U.S. military maintains in the region.”
Austin also has ordered the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln, an aircraft carrier, and its associated escort ships to ensure that an aircraft carrier remains in the region, Singh said. Another carrier, the USS Theodore Roosevelt, was in the Gulf of Oman on Friday and accompanied by several other warships after they recently moved out of the Persian Gulf, a U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. The shift leaves open the possibility that they will move to Israel if they sail west around Yemen toward the Red Sea.
The moves come after Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, and Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah vowed to retaliate after the killing this week of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and a senior Hezbollah commander, Fuad Shukr. . . .
The events have brought the region closer to full-blown conflict than perhaps at any point since the Gaza war began 10 months ago with a bloody cross-border attack by Hamas.
Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and a group of militias in Iraq and Syria all receive weapons and training from Iran, part of a vast anti-Israel, anti-U.S. network Tehran has supported for years.
U.S. officials had revealed little until Friday evening about how they were preparing for the possibility of an attack, but the White House said Thursday night that President Biden had spoken to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and affirmed his commitment to Israeli security “against all threats from Iran, including its proxy terrorist groups Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis.”
“The President discussed efforts to support Israel’s defense against threats, including against ballistic missiles and drones, to include new defensive U.S. military deployments,” said a brief statement summarizing the two leaders’ call.
The recent bloodshed follows a sprawling drone and missile attack by Iran on Israel in April in which the U.S. military intervened, taking down numerous drones and missiles as Israeli forces intercepted others. Iran launched that attack after an Israeli airstrike on an Iranian diplomatic compound in Syria killed two Iranian generals and other Iranian military personnel.
“As we have demonstrated since October and again in April, the United States’ global defense is dynamic and the Department of Defense retains the capability to deploy on short notice to meet evolving national security threats,” Singh said in her statement on Friday. “The United States also remains intently focused on de-escalating tensions in the region and pushing for a ceasefire as part of a hostage deal to bring the hostages home and end the war in Gaza.”

Is it necessary for the U.S. to deploy aircraft carriers, etc., “to defend against a potential attack on Israel by Iran”? Isn’t Israel capable of handling its own defense? Haven’t they shown themselves self-sufficient in this regard, in many conflicts over the past seven decades?

Excuse me if I get annoyed by American political leaders — not just Joe Biden and the Democrats, but also many Republicans — who seem to think they are obliged to be constantly meddling in the Middle East, as if the Israelis are incapable of self-defense and thus require the U.S. to act as Big Brother to protect them from bullies. This attitude is actually harmful to Israel, since it feeds into a perception widespread among Israel’s enemies that Israel is essentially a U.S.-controlled puppet.

As for the Biden administration’s avowed focus on “de-escalating tensions in the region,” Noah Pollak has relevant thoughts:

All year, Biden, [Secretary of State Anthony] Blinken, and [National Security Advisor Jake] Sullivan lectured and threatened Israel that the only acceptable way to prosecute the war was precision targeting of terrorist leaders that avoided civilian casualties. This week, Israel eliminated two terror leaders in precision strikes. And now Biden is lecturing and threatening Israel for “escalating.” This is a game Israel cannot win, because every time Israel acts, the Democrats change the rules so they can accuse Netanyahu of breaking them. This is Calvinball as foreign policy, fueled by the left’s hatred of the Jewish state. Anything short of national suicide earns the condemnation of the Democrats.

Where is the evidence that Blinken or Sullivan (or anybody else in the Biden administration) are better qualified to judge Israel’s interests than the Israelis themselves? Where is the proof of their superior wisdom on Middle East policy as compared to, e.g., Benjamin Netanyahu?

So here we are, on the brink of a potentially apocalyptic war, with the President of the United States in a mentally-impaired condition while decision-making authority is being exercised by a bunch of arrogant “experts” who never won an election — not even to a county commission seat, much less to any position of executive authority — and we’re just supposed to accept this as normal? Hurry up, November 5!



 

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Category: Iran, Israel, Joe Biden

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